James Crampton, specialist registrar in accident and emergency medicine2

1 Alexandra Hospital, Redditch

2 City Hospital, Birmingham

A 64 year old man, who lived alone, was found collapsed one morning by his daughter. He responded only to painful stimuli and seemed to have weakness of the left side of his body. He was brought by ambulance to the accident and emergency department, the paramedics alerting the department that they were bringing a patient with stroke. On arrival at the department, the patient's Glasgow coma …